Author: Stephen J. Bronner

First, there was Oatly. Now, established players and startups alike have their own oat milk products. May 17, 2019 2 min read Oat milk is a trend three decades in the making. Oatly, an independent Swedish company, came up with a patented process to turn oats into a beverage that could replace milk in the 1990s. But it wasn’t until the past few years, when the brand underwent a redesign and targeted coffee shops in New York, that consumers took note of the oat. Oatly spread to shops and retailers across the country, and became so popular last year that there were shortages that temporarily drove prices up. Related: Impossible Foods Raises Another $300 Million to Boost Production of its Bleeding Plant-Based Burger That’s unlikely to happen again, as competition has heated up in the oat milk space. Major industry players, including HP Hood (under the brand Planet Oat), Quaker […]

Emoji will be featured on Hershey’s bars for a limited time this summer. May 15, 2019 2 min read Hershey’s will add emoji to its chocolate bars for a limited time this summer in what will be the first time the company has changed the look of the iconic treat. And let’s just get this out of the way: the poop emoji will be featured. The Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Emoji Bars will come in six packaging designs, will feature 25 of the icons and come in standard and snack sizes. Image credit: Hershey’s “Our classic Hershey’s bars were made to be shared with others,” Kriston Ohm, senior manager of Hershey’s brand, said in a press release. “By adding an emoji design to each pip of chocolate, we hope that parents and kids are inspired to share a chocolate emoji and make a connection with someone new.” Related: This Young Entrepreneur, Who […]

Tara Bosch started SmartSweets when she was 21 so she could enjoy candy every day. May 13, 2019 3 min read For Tara Bosch, her business SmartSweets will be the future of candy — it’s just a matter of “reverse executing against the future.” “That conviction has helped us to move forward and overcome the challenges that come with the roller coaster ride of entrepreneurship,” she said. Related: When Her Mother Was Diagnosed With Breast Cancer, She Started a Popcorn Company to Raise Money for Research Bosch, who admits she’s a “candy addict and a sugar fiend,” founded the company in 2016 when she was 21 after a conversation with her grandmother. The 89 year old said she had regretted consuming so much sugar over the years, which caused Bosch to reflect on her eating habits. “That sparked my quest to explore finding a candy I can feel good about,” […]

Numi Organic Tea, founded in 1999 by the Rahim siblings, has been embraced by the giants of Silicon Valley. April 29, 2019 3 min read When siblings Ahmed Rahim and Reem Rahim Hassani founded their tea company, Numi, in 1999, they set out to disrupt a market that was dominated by cheap bagged teas with a quality presentation reminiscent of the tea culture of their native Iraq. “The other tea companies were just giving you a beverage,” Reem said. “We wanted to create an emotional, spiritual connection with consumers that evoked reflection and an artistry and the care for the plants and the cultures where they came from. That set us apart.” Related: This Extreme Extrovert Started a Multimillion-Dollar Wellness Snack Company After Her Stint in the Peace Corps Was Cut Short The strategy worked. Now 20 years in business, Numi Organic Tea products, which include bagged, loose and bottled […]

The Barrow brothers, owners of Denver-based Boyer’s Coffee, recently launched an exclusive line for the retail giant. April 22, 2019 3 min read When Walmart wanted to launch its own version of packaged third-wave coffee, it sought out the Denver-based Boyer’s Coffee, run by brothers Douglass and Jason Barrow. The brothers traced this win back to a success it had more than 10 years prior that laid the groundwork for the partnership. In 2005, both brothers worked for corporations — Jason for General Electric and Douglass for ING — and then got the entrepreneurial itch. With their mutual love of coffee, they purchased a roastery called Luna. Their first big success would come soon, but it wasn’t under their brand’s name — rather, they got a deal for a private label with Schwan’s, the frozen food giant. Related: The Story Behind the Coffee Company That Fuels Google, Microsoft and Facebook […]

Icelandic Provisions, maker of Icelandic dairy product skyr, is the result of an investment firm and a farmer collective trusting each other. April 15, 2019 3 min read For Jon Flint and his firm Polaris Founders Capital, winning over an Icelandic dairy company came down to appreciating the culture. That’s both the cultures used to make Icelandic skyr, a dairy product similar to yogurt, and the culture of Iceland itself. “At first, the team here was very apprehensive,” said Ari Edwald, CEO of MS Iceland Dairies, a cooperative of more than 600 family-run dairy farms. “Who is this American? Does he have any knowledge of bringing this tradition that is so rooted in this country?” Related: This Startup Raised $17 Million for Its Efforts to Resurrect Cottage Cheese Sales Flint and his Polaris partner, Terry McGuire, were the founders of Polaris Partners (the VC firm behind companies including Akamai, WordPress, […]

The company will soon also debut a convenient take on noodle bowls, one of which will be made with Beyond Meat. April 12, 2019 2 min read Singapore-style food company Nona Lim (named after its founder) shows that if you want to introduce people to foods they may not be familiar with, make it as accessible as you can. When the company debuted its Heat & Sip Cups a couple of years ago, it opened an entryway to the Asian tradition of bone broth to the masses. The broths, in flavors such as Thai Coconut Lime, Miso and Vietnamese Pho, come in a form factor more resembling a Starbucks coffee cup and can be heated in a microwave (after the liner plastic is removed). Related: This Entrepreneur Who Left Tech for Food Got $3 Million in Funding After She Decided Not to Be ‘Too Innovative’ The innovation eclipsed the rest […]

The two recent moves show just how much the sector is growing. April 8, 2019 2 min read Millions of dollars have been committed to plant-based meat replacements over the past few weeks. Greenleaf Foods, makers of products under the Lightlife and Field Roast brands, today announced its plan to construct what it calls the “largest plant-based protein manufacturing facility” in North America. The company said in a press release that the facility, in Shelbyville, Ind., will cost $310 million and be operational in late 2020 “to meet rapidly rising demand for plant-based proteins by supporting its innovation pipeline across its brands.” It estimates that 460 jobs will be created. The 40-year-old company, a subsidiary of Canada-based Maple Leaf Foods Inc., recently introduced the Lightlife Burger and Ground, Italian Sausage and Bratwurst Sausage, all pea protein-based, in January. Meanwhile, leading plant-based food maker Tofurky announced last week it has accepted […]

Lisa Curtis was introduced to the healthful moringa plant after volunteering to work in Africa. Her company recently raised $6 million. April 1, 2019 4 min read Lisa Curtis started her business, Kuli Kuli, on the basis of the benefits of the moringa plant, which is grown in parts of Asia and Africa. The plant also became her key selling point. But then she realized, after a friend’s suggestion, that her story should lead the way. “I didn’t want it to be about me. I didn’t think it was relevant for it to be about my story,” she said. “Initially, I started out with, ‘moringa is this amazing tree you never heard of,’ but changing it to start with why I cared about it was incredibly powerful. Telling my story and starting with ‘why’ has been the best quote unquote marketing tactic that we use.” Related: A Quick Oral History […]

Dan Gluck, a partner at PowerPlant Ventures and a co-founder of Health Warrior, shares what he’s most excited about. March 27, 2019 4 min read The entrepreneurs creating food companies are no longer satisfied with just making better-for-you products, they want to shake up the industry, according to a venture capitalist who was an early investor in Beyond Meat. “What we’re seeing now is quality entrepreneurs coming out of the MBA program leaving jobs at Fortune 500 companies to go and start food companies,” said Dan Gluck, a partner at PowerPlant Ventures and a co-founder of the Pepsico-owned Health Warrior. “Why? The food industry is broken. So where there’s problems and crises, that attracts capital and talent.” The plant-based focused PowerPlant Ventures, founded in 2015, has also invested in other rising stars in the food space, such as Thrive Market, the Kimbal Musk co-founded Square Roots, Just and Ripple. Gluck’s […]

Verve Coffee, started in 2007, operates 12 cafes, has a hefty B2B business and recently launched a canned beverage. March 21, 2019 7 min read What do Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Airbnb and Salesforce have in common? Plenty of things, of course, but one odd detail is that many of their employees are drinking Verve Coffee. The company, founded in 2007 by Ryan O’Donovan and Colby Barr, helped bring the so-called “third wave of coffee,” in which coffee consumers started becoming invested in how their brew was prepared and where the beans were sourced from. Related: How This Coffee Startup Rocketed to National Retail Within a Few Months of Its Launch What started out as a single cafe in Santa Cruz has evolved into an international business. Verve now runs nine standalone cafes in California — including one on Facebook’s Menlo Park campus — and three in Japan, and also provides coffee for […]

Michael Schultz founded both Fairgrounds Coffee, which serves coffees and teas from different brewers, and Infuse Hospitality, a provider of custom cafes. Read_More Related posts: This Entrepreneur Crashed and Burned Out from Stress. Now He’s on a Mission to Change the ‘Hustle’ Lifestyle. This Successful Media Executive Shares a Surprising Truth About What You Must Do to Secure Your Place at the Top What You Need to Know to Launch a Successful Podcast New Podcast Showcases Successful Female Founders Restaurant Technology Needs Are Serving up Great Entrepreneur Opportunities Why the Most Successful Businesses Follow These 7 Natural Laws SPI 245: How Sol Orwell Builds Successful Businesses by Solving His Own Problems 4 Successful Ways Businesses Need to Adapt to a Growing Hispanic Demographic

Epic Provisions, owned by the food giant, took credit for creating a buffalo meat and dried fruit bar, but Native Americans have been eating it for hundreds of years. Another company also debuted a similar product years before. March 11, 2019 6 min read Epic Provisions has found success selling bars made of buffalo meat and dried fruit as a high-protein snack — a food enjoyed by Native Americans throughout history — but it’s a success story built on cultural appropriation and privilege. Native Americans have eaten a mix of dried meats, nuts and fruits for hundreds of years — some tribes call it wasna, others pemmican. But Epic Provisions, an Austin, Texas-based food company now owned by General Mills, doesn’t acknowledge this history. On top of that, the product they claim to have created had already been packaged into bar form by a South Dakota-based certified B-corp food business […]

The new burgers are a mix of either beef or turkey and mushrooms. March 7, 2019 2 min read Meat or plant-based burger, or something in between? Applegate, a producer of organic hot dogs, sausages, deli meats, cheese and other products, this month introduced The Great Organic Blend Burger, which is made with either beef or turkey, and mixed with white button mushrooms sourced from a family farm in Pennsylvania. The only other ingredient is rosemary extract. It’s the first Applegate product to incorporate plants and is available nationwide at retailers including Kroger, HyVee, Sprouts and HEB. John Ghingo, president of Applegate Farms, said the product is for those who eat meat but want to cut down on their consumption of it. “There are more and more consumers who are looking to incorporate more plants and vegetables into their diets,” he told Entrepreneur. “It’s a solution that works well for […]

Tiesta Tea aims to simplify options for customers by explaining the function and flavor of each of its loose leaf tea packages. March 4, 2019 4 min read At the start of their loose leaf tea business in 2010, Tiesta Tea founders Dan Klein and Patrick Tannous said they knocked on an estimated 500 doors within 20 days to sell their product. The pair, friends since preschool, aimed for their business to capture their experience drinking loose leaf tea in a Czech tea house during a European vacation while college students. Like many Americans, they were not familiar with tea outside of bottles (even bagged tea significantly lags behind ready-to-drink tea). Related: Her Brand Is Practically Millennial Bait, But This Entrepreneur Still Has to Overcome Steep Challenges “We were just surprised at how good it tasted, and we said why aren’t more people in the U.S. doing this?” said Tannous, […]

Jose Fernandez entered a whole new industry with TEN Water after he thought he could improve on existing alkaline water brands. February 25, 2019 2 min read After Jose Fernandez sold his legal-focused software company in 2011, he jumped into a whole new industry: bottled water. It was all based on a hunch that alkaline water (with a higher pH level) would be the next big thing in H2O consumption. He was eventually proven right, as his company, TEN Spring Water, has seen revenue grow by 100 percent year over year, with revenues expected to be between $7 million and $9 million this year, according to the company. TEN is now sold in 8,000 U.S. stores. But it was a slow start in 2012. Related: After 10 Years of Unprofitability, 2 Breakthroughs Led This Entrepreneur to a $100 Million Brand “Coming into an industry I knew nothing about, it was […]

Barry Turner, who along with his co-founder created the protein category, has evolved from hustler to creative ‘mad scientist.’ February 18, 2019 7 min read Not many entrepreneurs can boast of not only staying with their company for 25 years, but creating an entire product category. Barry Turner has done both. Turner is the co-founder of Lenny & Larry’s, which introduced the protein-packed cookie in 1993, years before eating protein-packed anything was mainstream. He and his co-founder, Benny Graham (they thought their names with L’s would be funnier on the label), hustled to convince stores to carry their nutritional treats for years, until they sold the brand in 2001. But Turner never left his brand fully behind, buying half of it back in 2007. He and his new partner, Don Crouch, then sold majority control of the brand to investors in 2017 “to reward ourselves for a job well done,” […]

The iconic dessert restaurant will stretch its brand for the first time with packaged pints sold in 7-Eleven stores. February 14, 2019 2 min read How much does an iconic brand name matter when competing in a crowded category? The owners of New York City’s famous Serendipity 3 — which boasts of famous customers such as Andy Warhol, Bill Clinton and Oprah Winfrey and featured heavily in a 2001 romantic comedy of the same name — will find out. Image credit: Serendipity Late last year, the owners (a group of investors purchased the restaurant and its assets in 2018) of the 65-year-old dessert establishment introduced a line of ice cream pints to New York City 7-Eleven stores. Now, the products will be rolled out nationwide. Mark Smolin, CEO of Serendipity Brands, is banking on the brand’s iconic status and “premium” ingredients to compete with the likes of Häagen-Daz and Ben […]

What do you do? I am a full-time freelance writer, editor, and photographer. I spend the majority of my day freelancing through Fiverr as a PRO Fiverr writer and editor. I write blogs posts, press releases, product descriptions, Amazon product descriptions, website content, crowdfunding campaigns and newsletters. I typically work with 15-plus clients per day. I have worked with everyone from a member of the Royal Family to government personnel in the United States. How did you get your start? Funny enough, I was working a government job up in Albany, N.Y., when my mom suggested I check out this freelancing platform “Fiverr.” I began editing with a $5 gig, earning anywhere from $30 to $50 per month. I thought it was absolutely amazing, earning some petty cash from my laptop in my free-time. I moved to NYC in November of 2015 to work at a PR firm in midtown. […]

Shari Leidich wants to help consumers make better dietary choices with Know Brainer. January 21, 2019 3 min read Shari Leidich wasn’t coy when naming the main competition of her startup, Know Brainer: the famed Dave Asprey and his Bulletproof brand, which created the current buttered coffee trend. After she lost control of her first company, Two Moms in a Raw (renamed Soul Sprout), to her investors in March 2016, the 50-year-old entrepreneur worked with food scientists to launch Know Brainer in July of that year. The coffee creamer and instant beverage company was founded on the principles of the keto diet, which favors foods high in fat in lieu of carbs and sugar. Interest in the keto diet and foods that adhere to it have been rapidly growing over the past few years. Related: What Drove This Former Schoolteacher to Create a Leading Protein and Snack Bar Company “We […]

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